MCAFEE'S
MECHANICS
USE ROBO-PONG TO TRAIN YOUR CHOPPING GAME (Part
1)By Richard McAfee, 1999 US
Developmental Coach of the
Year

The best
description for the modern chopping style of play is "an
attacker who uses an aggressive backspin game to set up
his/her own attack." Normally this style of player uses
two different surfaces on their rackets, usually one is
an inverted rubber and one will be pips-out, either long
pips or short.

The returns
from such different rubbers can cause the straight
topspin attacker a lot of confusion. However, it also
demands a great deal of training by the chopper to learn
to control the many options he/she has for each stroke.
This is especially true at the higher l evels where
choppers can flip their rackets at will to produce a
large variety of returns and attacking
strokes.

I consider
the Robo-Pong 2000 an indispensable tool in training
choppers. The very nature of their games makes it hard to
find practice partners who can consistently drill against
a good chopper.

While every
chopper will use a different blend of offense and
defense, here are some good basic drills that I have
successfully used in training such choppers as Derek May,
Pan Am Games Silver Medallist.

Warming Up
Drills
For all styles of players, I recommend that you warm-up
the short strokes first, before trying to hit or chop
with longer and harder strokes. These are strokes that
consist of using only the wrist and elbow joints. This
will help you quickly get into the proper timing and
allow you to establish ball control early during your
warm-up. For the chopper this means starting off with
pushing and blocking drills like the ones listed
below:

(Editor's
Note: You may wish to browse our
Coaching Forum Archives for articles on how to
execute a push or block.)Push
against

Backspin /
Inverted Side Whole Table

Set your
Newgy for backspin with the oscillator on 3-4. This will
sweep the whole table. Practice using only the inverted
side to push, regardless if you use a backhand or
forehand. This is great practice for footwork, and for
flipping the racket. At the higher levels of the game,
most choppers will push primarily with the inverted
side.

Push
against Backspin / Pips-out Side

Set your
Newgy as above, but this time only push with the pips-out
side. Be sure to work on keeping the ball low.

Backhand
Block / Counter Against Topspin

Set your
Newgy on a medium topspin with the oscillator set at 3-4.
First, warm-up your counters and blocks with the inverted
side. After a few minutes flip and warm-up your pips-out
counters and blocks. If you use a chop block now is the
perfect time to warm up this stroke as it leads naturally
into the chopping strokes.

Next month,
in Part 2, I'll list some basic chopping drills to use
after you have warmed up your strokes using the above
drills.